Bush is reportedly going to attempt to escalate our troop commitment to the war in Iraq, even though he doesn’t know yet what these additional kids will do……

Bush has delusions of some place in history similar to Harry S. Truman, Winston Churchill, FDR or Teddy Roosevelt, and has said he would continue his whackiness though it might mean he was only supported by Laura Bush and his dog. I can only assume that Dick “Undisclosed Location” Cheney is either directing Bush or strongly supporting this choice. Plus, Bush is still backed by the American Enterprise Neocons Institute, Faux News, the tabloid New York Post, the Moonie Washington Times, and apparently the Associated Press, Mort Zuckerman’s US News and World Report, and, by implication, TIME. Plus the editorial board of the Washington Post. Of course, Bush thinks that God is on his side.

His congressional support has dwindled to a few crazed wingers (including the cryptowinger John McCain). Polls have shown the American public to be overwhelmingly opposed to an escalation. The bipartisan ISG report is apparently a non-starter/dead letter. Our troops do not approve of his management of the war. Until it became clear that Bush would get rid of anyone who disagreed with him, our generals opposed more troops in Iraq. The Iraqs want us out of their country. I have not seen any “world” polls but certainly there is next to no confidence in Bush’s policies in the Middle East (with the very prominent exception of the political leadership in Israel).

We have been in a constitutional crisis since Bush defied the law and the courts over warrantless wiretaps of US citizens. Of course, the pocket Congress ignored it. Now the American people has thrown out the Republican congress, and we are facing an escalation of the crisis; now we may see a real clash of constitutional and physical power and intimidation.

We are staring at a kind of crisis we have never seen before. This is not “your father’s” political conflict.

Bush probably feels that he is secure in his dictatorial powers: he has control of the armed services and the Justice Department, he has the Patriot Act, the repealing of the posse comitatus statutes, warrantless wiretaps and warrentless opening of US mail, not to mention the Yoo/Addington/Gonzales pronouncements of kingly powers. Thanks to Joe Liberman and one or two random quotes from other Democrats, Bush will undoubtedly claim “bipartisan support.”

Bush never goes halfway. He is NOT going to PROPOSE this escalation, imho; he is going to PROCLAIM it. And he is not going to back away.

The balance of powers is going to be tested, imho. Never has a president precipitated this kind of crisis, never has a president claimed such kingly powers. This is very different, and this is very serious. Bush has, in effect, declared war on the American system of government, and now we are approaching the end game.The congress cannot view this as “business as usual.” Bush has used all his constitutional powers and taken many more, in an effort to truly establish an American dictatorship. Congress must understand that this is not the era in which a president is impeached for some sexual misconduct or possibly lying under oath. This is not “your father’s impeachment.” What we are seeing here is an attempt by the excutive branch to take over the country…to extinguish the power of Congress, not to mention the courts.

This has to be seen as an entirely different environment than any other period in which impeachment was considered. This is not “your father’s” impeachment.

the ability to remove the president from office via impeachment or the 25th amendment.

They had better wake up, do their homework and get serious. Because we have never seen this kind of situation before, and, in my opinion, never had this sort of people occupying the two highest offices in the land.

Congress has to stop harking back to Clinton. This is not anything like Clinton, parsing a word, disgracing his office. This is our system of government. We have a president who is out of control, deciding according to his whim who he will bomb next. He is gonna talk to us about “sacrifice;” we are cannot sacrifice our system of government to these crazies, out of some misplaced sense of guilt over what happened to Clinton.

Congress has to wake up to what has been happening, and be ready for what we seem to be heading for. EVERYTHING SHOULD BE ON THE TABLE.

One response to “This is not “your father’s” impeachment.”

I like this. Be careful about slipping into hyperbole: “Never has a president precipitated this kind of crisis.”

Lincoln may have preserved the Union but he destroyed the Republic; essentially starting the long and rich history of US Presidents being above the Constitution and making it a legal fact that the States have just as little power and just as few rights as the People.

FDR exceeded his official powers to froze the country in its worst economic moments for more than a decade and though he’s popular today, he certainly did more damage to America proper than GW. Prison camps? At least there are only a handful of Americans in them today. There were 120,000 Americans in prison camps under FDR.

GW is an especially terrible president. The competition for worst, however, is fierce.

I would encourage the timorous Democrats in DC to consider how badly impeachment with Clinton hurt the Republicans; i.e., not at all.